Oregon Girls Collaborative

The Oregon Girls Collaborative (OGC) is a statewide network of support for girl-serving STEM organizations, working to strengthen capacity, increase continuation of girl-serving STEM programs, and create more champions for gender-equity in STEM education and careers. As part of the National Girls Collaborative, we have access to thousands of programs and resources that are focused on providing high quality STEM experiences for girls.

We bring together organizations throughout Oregon that are committed to informing and motivating girls to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). As the convening organization for OGC, OregonASK has created a Leadership Team to help develop a clear mission and work plan to support equitable STEM education in Oregon moving forward.

We see the Oregon Girls Collaborative as part of the STEM movement that will change the face of STEM in Oregon, exposing more underrepresented youth to quality STEM experiences while keeping older girls engaged in non-traditional STEM fields through high school and beyond. The collaborative is working to increase equity in STEM and strengthen the pipeline of girls from elementary school through women in the workforce.

Oregon Girls Collaborative overall goals are to strengthen capacity, increase continuation of girl-serving STEM programs, and create more champions for gender-equity in STEM education and careers.

Establish clear network of girl-serving programs across the state while documenting community & program needs.

Establish support system that includes expanding access to shared resources within and across programs, public and private sector organizations and institutions interested in expanding girls’ participation in STEM.

Use the leverage of the network of girl-serving STEM programs to increase awareness and promote gender equity in STEM.

Strengthen capacity of existing and evolving projects by establishing and sharing exemplary practice research, program models, outcomes, and products.

Support program design that intentionally attracts, engages and retains girls and fosters their interest and skills in STEM.

Advocate for more consistent STEM funding opportunities and standards for girl-serving collaborations.

Start a Girls Who Code Club

Girls Who Code, the national non-profit dedicated to closing the gender gap in technology is seeking partners to host its Clubs programs. Computing skills are the most sought-after in the US job market, with demand growing 3X the national average. Computing is where the jobs are — and where they will be in the future — but girls across the US are being left behind. Today, less than a quarter of computing jobs are held by women, and that number is declining.Girls Who Code Clubs inspire, educate, and equip our girls for tomorrow’s computing jobs.

Girls Who Code Clubs are FREE after-school programs for 6-12th grade girls to use computer science to impact their community and join our sisterhood of supportive peers and role models. They can be hosted in schools, universities, libraries, community centers, faith-based organizations, or nonprofits. Clubs are led by Facilitators, who can be teachers, computer scientists, librarians, parents, or volunteers from any background or field. Many Facilitators have NO technical experience and learn to code alongside their Club members.Click Here to read more about starting your own club!

Supporting College Success for Young Women in STEM

Find additional resources for young women looking to pursue post-secondary education in STEM Fields, including information about scholarships and opportunities to connect with peers. Helping Women Bridge the STEM Gender Gap

Partnering with OCSTA and NCWIT

The Oregon Computer Science Teachers Association (OCSTA) Summer Symposium was held June 24 at Portland State University. You can read the Speaker Bios and see the agenda here. OCSTA also hosted a series of SuperQuest Workshops across the state throughout the summer. OGCP is exploring greater partnership to address the huge gap in opportunities and support for women in technology. If you are interested in learning more or getting connected, please contact bethany.thramer@oregonask.org.

SuperQuest is a highly collaborative technology training series designed specifically for K-12 teachers by K-12 and Community College teachers. Their goal is to empower educators with the skills and classroom tools to build hands-on technology learning directly into their classrooms and/or after-school activities.

#ILookLikeAnEngineer

Umatilla’s All-Girls robotics team set out to show students across the country what engineers look like! FIRST Robotics Teams 4980 and 4125 united to build a collection of 9,105 #ILookLikeAnEngineer photos by April 2017. Check outFacesOfEngineeringto help spread the word!

Promote your STEM opportunities with The Connectory!

The National Girls Collaborative Project Program Directory has expanded
and it is now The Connectory! Along with a new name and website, new features have been added to make it easier to promote your STEM programs and opportunities to a broader audience, including families. One new feature is the ability to create time bound STEM opportunities, such as summer camps, one-day events, workshops, career fairs, and competitions. By adding your opportunities, families visiting The Connectory will be able to easily find your upcoming summer events and activities!

Upcoming Professional Development

Attendees learn how to use Code.org’s courses to introduce computer science basics in a format that’s fun and accessible to the youngest learners (grades K-5).

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Service to Careers Fall Cohort

This middle school aged program focuses on equipping youth with employability skills while connecting with local workforce opportunities, using a service learning, youth-voice model. Click Herefor more information about joining the fall cohort of programs around Oregon or Register Now.

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OregonASK Training Brochure

CLICK HERE to download our current Training Brochure and chose from a variety of topics; STEM, Behavior Management, Art, Social Emotional Learning, and much more. All of the trainings OregonASK is proud to offer training aligns with Oregon Center for Career Development (OCCD) and the Oregon Registry Online (ORO). Contact Katie.Lakey@oregonask.org for more information about scheduling a training for your program.

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Our Reports

Smart Summers Report:Investing in Experience, Skills, and Oregon’s Future through Summer Learning. A report created from the House Education Committee’s Summer Learning Work Group.

Oregon After 3pm: Oregon is new to the list of top 10 states for afterschool, ranked 7th due to strong overall parent satisfaction with afterschool programs, the quality of care, variety of activities and cost. However, while 91,595 Oregon children (16%) participate in an afterschool program, 221,708 (44%) would be enrolled in a program if it was available.

Take a look at Oregon’s Fact Page to see more of what parents are saying about the Benefits, Summer, Health & Wellness and STEM in afterschool and summer.

Afterschool: A Parent Point of View: After hosting a dozen focus groups for parents in ten communities across western Oregon, we compiled this report to summarize the findings.

Afterschool Workforce: A Critical Partner
OregonASK surveyed a sample of out‑of‑school time programs across Oregon, asking about their education, job histories, working conditions, training history, professional development needs and recommendations for improvement of the field of youth services. Click here to read full report.